The Coleraine Battery was a Light Anti Aircraft Unit of 200 volunteers raised to meet the
threat of the German Blitzkrieg Attacks during WWII. The volunteers
all came from the Coleraine and mid-Ulster areas of Northern Ireland. The volunteers
fought their way through
Scotland, Egypt, Libya, The Western Desert, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and
Italy. In 1946, one year after the defeat
of the Axis powers in Europe, the Battery was disbanded. This section
highlights their duties in Belgium and is illustrated with photographs taken during
the war by the veterans.

NormandyThe Battery became part of 5 AGRA (Army Group Royal Artillery) for
D-Day. An AGRA
was a group of five or six Medium RA Regiments brought together for a specific
task. The Battery was going over to Normandy
on D Day + 10. This phase of the Battery commitment was carried on without
relief until the war ended in Europe in May
1945.

The Battery left
Tilbury Docks, Southampton on board ss "John Souter"
Doherty (1988) and headed for a spot between the secured Juno and Gold
beachheads. The disembarkation took place at Le Hamel, east of Arramanches on the Normandy
coast. Here, the Battery relieved 113th Battery
of the 27th LAA Regiment RA.

"The weather
at this time was terrible, always raining. We had not washed for over two
weeks. One day the Battery was cammed up in the corner of an orchard. Ernie Piney and myself had a great shower. We stripped off to the pelt and
then put our boots on. We ran round the orchard a couple of times. I can still
feel the fresh rain hitting my skin after all this time.

"The Bofors
Guns were used in a ground role all the way through France until we reached the
Nijmegan bridge. As part of the ground role we were
asked on occasions to provide indicating fire for the Typhoons with the Bofors
gun. On these occasions we fired three rounds of tracer on a designated
bearing." Spanky McGowan (2004)

The Battery moved on to
Belgium in early September 1944. It passed through Tournai (4th Sept) Brussels
(5th Sept) Argentan,
AlbertCanal,
Champoi, and Louvaine. During this stage of the advance some
personnel took over Recce Cars and operated with the Princess Irene Brigade. At
this time the SP Troops were getting in and out of all sorts of trouble
at Cross Roads and Canal Crossings.

Author, "Spankey, why were you
dancing with the women and children in the middle of a field?" Spankey
replied, "It did not matter where you went in Belgium, everyone was so
happy to be liberated from the Germans they were dancing with joy".

The Ardennes "At
Nijmegan we were all getting ready to celebrate Christmas, the war was
practically won at this stage, or so we thought. Trude, her father and mother and
the gun crew were clubbing together to have a good Christmas. The cook, Marcus
Wilton had been scalded when the stove exploded, other than that we had no
serious problems.

About the 19th Dec 1944, Willie Watton, the Don R (Dispatch Rider) came up to us. He told us
to pack up as we had one hour to
move. We told him to go away. This information was hard to believe. The reason
was that Von Runstedt went through the Yanks in the Ardennes
like a hot knife through butter". Spanky McGowan (2004)

By BoxingBay, the Battery had moved 120 miles south into Belgium. They were at The Ardennes standing in three
feet of snow

.

The Battle of the Bulge - Belgium - 16 Dec 1944
until
16 Jan 1945

The Germans launched the Ardennes
Offensive on 16 Dec 1944. The Start Line for this offensive was sixty miles
long. It ran along the German border from Monschau in the North to the southern
part of the Luxembourg/German border in the South.

The German aim was to punch their way
through the weak defence in the Ardennes, cross the River Meuse and take the
port of Antwerp. This would sever, not only the Allied supply lines but also the
Allied Armies. With this successful conclusion, the German armies intended
launching an attack on their Eastern Front. By 18 December, 28th and 106th
American Divisions had been overrun. The main reasons for this success
included the fact that 106 Division were spread out too thinly over a twenty one mile
defensive front.

On 19th December, 6th LAA Battery were
ordered to move from Nijmegan. Initially the Battery were located at
Hasselt along with 30 Corps who covered the Northern Line from Louvaine to Hasselt.
There they were expected to halt the advancing German Armies.
American 1st Army were located from Ciney to Duboy and 3rd Army were located
south at Bastogne.

However, due to the valiant and
tenacious fighting of the re-grouped American Armies, the German Armies were
halted on 22 December. This allowed the Allied forces to be re-deployed. On 23rd
December, 6th LAA Battery, under the command of 6th Airborne Division moved to
Namur and operated along a line from Ciney to Dinant. (Doherty, 1988)

The Bulge, which delineated the
successful containment of the German offensive, was fan shaped. The Front
extended for sixty miles from Monschau in the East to Dinant in the West. The
base of the fan shape was thirty miles south on the Luxembourg/German border.

By the end of January, the German
Armies had been routed. Of the 500,000 Germans involved 100,000 were casualties.
For the Americans 600,000 were involved and they had 81,000
casualties. The remaining Allied Armies lost 1,400 from the 55,000 involved.

The ReichswaldForestAfter the Ardennes, the
Battery moved back to Nijmegan then crossed the Nijmegan Bridge and turned
west, heading for Germany. The Battery moved through the
ReichswaldForest, Goch and Cleve.

The Final Advance into GermanyThe final stage of the Allied advance took the Battery to Buxtehude where
the Battery carried out garrison duties for
the first time. Then the Battery went on to carry out guard duties at Stalag XB,
Belsen and Sanbostel Concentration Camps.

"The Battery carried out security duties at Belsen
and San Bostel. It's different when you see a friend die, you feel sad and
grieve for them. But to see a couple of thousand skeletons being thrown, heads
to tails into a hole in the ground, covered in lime and then bulldozed over. It
did not seem to have the same effect on the Battery.
It was so strange, you all felt the same way, thinking 'This is horrible, those
German bastards!' and all that. You talked about it and tried to accept it. The
only way we could cope with this was to leave it behind when we returned
home." Anon (2004)

After the horrors of Belsen and San Bostel, the Battery moved to Hamburg. The final set of duties included The Hartz
Mountains and San Andreasberg. "We went swimming at San Andreasberg and nearly froze to death. The
water was coming straight off the Hartz mountains". Spanky McGowan (2004)

Finally, the Battery was posted to Cuxhaven
north Germany for Dockyard duties. For the Battery, the war ended here
in 1945. They were moved south from Cuxhaven to Otterndorf . Demobilisation speeded up
and the Battery was reassigned as the 96th Battery, Royal Artillery.

References:

Doherty R. (1988) Wall of Steel: The History of the 9th
(Londonderry) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA (SR) North West Books.
Limavady